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Friday, March 12, 2010

Arts / Conflict of Interest The Evolution of Culture

Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 2:59 PM

This is it...

Image by Razvan Orendovici

My last Pop Life notes/conversation at Hidmo ended with a description of/discussion on the inhabitant, the ideal subject of the 21st century urban cosmos. The inhabitant is much like Woese's pre-Darwinian cosmopolitan gene—the gene that allows microorganisms to thrive in this or that environment. The inhabitant is not a citizen but a hustler. In the future, there will be no workers just hustlers—people who put this and that together to make a living. The informal market is going to grow and grow. Indeed, the neoliberal ideal of a self-thriving, self-generating, emergent market may become a reality, but the direction of the pressure behind this emergence will not be from the top down (the neoliberal approach for the past 30 years) but from the bottom up. In many areas, the informal market will replace the official economy in the way Pentecostal charity has replaced the government services in major parts of the planet of slums. This thriving of the informal market of hustlers will either be endured by those in power or met with a repeat of ”Operation Murambatsvina.”

My talk this Sunday (5 pm) will begin at this point, the inhabitant, and look at that world he/she is more and more living in. This world is going through a cultural revolution. Writes Freeman Dyson:

Cultural evolution is running a thousand times faster than Darwinian evolution, taking us into a new era of cultural interdependence which we call globalization. And now, as Homo sapiens domesticates the new biotechnology, we are reviving the ancient pre-Darwinian practice of horizontal gene transfer, moving genes easily from microbes to plants and animals, blurring the boundaries between species. We are moving rapidly into the post-Darwinian era, when species other than our own will no longer exist, and the rules of Open Source sharing will be extended from the exchange of software to the exchange of genes.

My conversation will connect Dyson's post-Darwian cultural revolution with a post-Darwinian theory held by geneticist Steve Jones and produce, one hopes, a surprise ending.

Comments (8) RSS

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Yes, but does the Inhabitant have the "right" to endanger kids by carrying loaded weapons in public parks, or is "he" merely annoying and a whiny neocon?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 12, 2010 at 3:38 PM

Mudede…was hoping to attend, but alas, cannot. Do you by chance record these?

Posted by Timothy on March 12, 2010 at 3:41 PM

How will writers hustle? Will you read samples of you work in coffee houses and then trade your printed pages to the impressed? I would give you a half dozen eggs from my flock for the equivalent of what you post on Slog in one week. Does my offer seem fair to you? Do you eat eggs?

Posted by Mrs Jarvie on March 12, 2010 at 4:11 PM

So, it's all memes.

Posted by Elfish Bastard on March 12, 2010 at 4:30 PM

Memes is where the action is. And the new iPad is going to be all about the memestream.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 12, 2010 at 4:32 PM

The iPad isn't Hot.

Hot Men. Hot Women. Want Hot News.

http://spifflines.blogspot.com

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on March 12, 2010 at 4:33 PM

gah! I was just heading out when my cell phone informed me that daylight savings time kicked in and it is already past 5:00!

Posted by MoonPatrol on March 14, 2010 at 5:11 PM

Charles is right on - we here in this country are about to slowly but surely join the rest of the world and see slums start to proliferate out of necessity. The libertarian/Tea Party movement is so strong & they'll reestablish neoliberal Reagan-era neoliberal priorities that'll further separate the haves and the have-nots. Jobs lost in this shitty economy aren't ever coming back, so what choice do we have?

Posted by only a matter of time... on March 15, 2010 at 2:31 AM